change

As of this week, I no longer work at the WIC (Women, Infant, and Children) clinic, which, for those who don't know, is a supplemental nutrition program for low income families. I have been working there two days a week for over 5 years.

When I first moved to Seattle and got a job at the hospital where I work, they only had a half time position open in inpatient pediatrics. So I had to get other hours somewhere, and they had hours available in this clinic, which is on a different campus of the medical center. All along I have truly wanted to be full time inpatient, but the opportunity has never come up for me until now.

My co-worker Alana has job-shared my inpatient position with me, and when I was there, she worked in NICU or saw outpatients. Alana had a baby now, so she will be on maternity leave for a few months, then will come back only half time. Therefore, a half time position came open, and it was logical for me to take the hours she is giving up. So now I will be the dietitian that is there full time for pediatrics, peds ICU, and the level 2 infant unit, and she and Kelly will be the two part-time dietitians for the neonatal ICU, and Alana will have a pediatric outpatient day.

It is definitely one of those bittersweet things. I have really liked working with pregnant and nursing moms at the clinic, and working with healthy little kids and babies. I have learned so much about normal child development and eating habits, which really gives me some good perspective when working with inpatients. I hope all of the experience I have had at the clinic will also help me to be a better mom when that time comes! I will also miss the families that I have been able to develop relationships with at the clinic. Some of them I have known for 5 years! The 3 co-workers at the clinic were all close to my mom's age, and they really were like aunties to me in many ways. The other big thing I will miss is having every other Monday off! This means that my hours are increasing, so I will have bigger paychecks. I really will miss having a day during the week to go to appointments or hang out with friends who were off too. Amy and Naomi and I had lots of fun Mondays together, which I will really miss!

The positives are the fact that I will, as I mentioned, be working more hours, and therefore making more money. I also think it will be nice to feel more ownership over my floors, because I won't be sharing coverage with someone else. Alana has been a great person to job share with, and we have worked really well together all of these years. But I do think it will be nice to always know what's going on from day to day with my patients, and the nurses and doctors will always know who to talk to about about a patient.

So that's the big change right now. I think it will be a good thing overall.